[amongsttheleaves]

The day after second seed Novak Djokovic lost to Denis Istomin in the second round, top seed Andy Murray will face the Serb's Wimbledon 2016 conqueror, Sam Querrey, for a place in the second week. The last time Djokovic failed to reach the third round of a slam was at Wimbledon in 2008; the last time Andy failed to reach the second week was at the Australian Open in 2008, when he lost to the unseeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga - who went on to reach the final - in the first round.

After a scruffy and lacklustre opening match, Andy gave teenager Andrey Rublev a tennis lesson in the second round, but the match was not without its issues when Andy fell and turned his right ankle. He was able to put his weight on it and finish the match, but reported in press that the ankle was sore and he had heard 'crackling' as he fell. Reporters gathered in earnest at the world number one's practice session on court 17 on Thursday afternoon and word is that Andy played without issue.

Andy and Querrey have not played since 2014, meeting in the GB vs USA Davis Cup tie in San Diego on clay, when Andy was on his road to recovery from back surgery. Querrey took the second set on a tiebreak but was roundly beaten in the third and fourth. Before that the only other time Querrey has taken sets off Andy was in Los Angeles in 2010, when Querrey sealed his only victory over Andy with a three set win.

Unsurprisingly tiebreaks and tight 7-5 sets are a feature of matches between Andy and Querrey. They have played four tiebreaks and three 7-5 sets across the seven matches they have played, and Querrey has taken two of the tiebreaks and none of the 7-5 sets. Andy has yet to drop a tiebreak in 2017, and has not lost a tiebreak at a slam since the semi-final in Melbourne in 2016. Querrey has a 50% tiebreak win record against top five players, winning nine and dropping nine, and at 71.4% his points won on first serve percentage against top ten players is 7% lower than his career average of first serve points won of 78.4%.

Querrey's biggest weapons are his first serve and his forehand. Against top five players Querrey's average career ace percentage is 13%. Against Andy it is 10%, while his points won on first serve is a full 10% below career average when he faces Andy, down at 68.4% on average from 78.4%. What is more his second serve points won, which sits at a career average of 50.7%, and 43.3% against top five players, sinks to 37.6% average against Andy. Other than clay in San Diego, Andy and Querrey have faced each other on grass or faster hard courts.

The match is scheduled to be played second on the slower Hisense Arena - which is an unticketed court which can be accessed with a ground pass and the crowd usually creates great atmosphere - on Friday 20th January, at not before 2pm local time, 3am GMT, and 9pm on Wednesday 19th January CST. The forecast is for cloud and sun at the time of the match, though rain is forecast earlier in the day, with temperatures of around 19 degrees Celsius, humidity of 69%, and a south-westerly wind of 14mph.

Andy leads the head-to-head 6-1. Thanks to Bev for the head-to-head image.

[amongsttheleaves]

At the risk of starting an argument in the tennis threads that isn't about tennis (let's not do that)*

Slay him, Sir Andy, slay him.


* Apologies to BBH for the use of brackets!

[jdonald]

Great I think the pressure should be off Andy now he will still be no 1 at the end of th is event. Querry will be tricky but he will be prepared. Good Lucky Andy and win.

[moonglow]

I'm sure the Yank is actually very scared of our Number 1

I'll try to be up very early tomorrow to see Andy demolish Sam

[Aileen]

Yeah, sorry, I couldn't resist. If the thread goes into meltdown you can all blame me.

Querrey's on some kind of roll with these comments. Not quite as bad as Vandeweghe and Isner, but still.

He beat Jamie in the first round of doubles, so now he's all about beating the Murrays.

I'm all about Sir Andy* slaying* him now!

 

*This thread is the only time I'll use 'Sir Andy'. Ever. Promise.
*As above with the use of 'slaying'.

I'm very glad to hear it.  And I'll make no more references to 'our noble knight'!  It all sounds a bit stupid really, especially as he hasn't even officially been awarded the honour yet.

[amongsttheleaves]

As if I didn't already want Andy to crush him...

What did Coco say ATL, if you don't mind me asking?

I'll reply on the other players thread so Andy's match thread doesn't go way off-topic!

[Aileen]

Thanks for another informative intro atl and brilliant H2H photos bev.
OMG perhaps Andy should borrow a 'F*** Donald Trump' t shirt from Nick K for the match - or Kim could wear it 
Sounds like the ankle is fine now even if a bit sore - thank goodness as he does have vulnerable ankles hence the way they're encased for matches.
When I saw he was relegated to Hisense court,. while the no 17 seed reigned in the evening session on RLA, I was all ready to get on my high horse.  But they were saying on Eurosport that in the past Andy has asked for that court because he likes it and, as it plays rather slower than the other show courts, they may have put in a request for it this time given he's up against a servebot. 

The privileges of being #1 - and look how we used to moan about Fed always getting preferential treatment!     The other good thing about Hisense is that anyone can just come in - no prior booking required - so the atmosphere is usually good, which will also suit Andy.

[blueberryhill]

   Me blooming too! If true what a horrible little oik  Querry is.

As if I didn't already want Andy to crush him...

Meanwhile,  thanks for brilliant intro atl and BevC.